Confession: When I was younger, I thought that Ramona Geraldine Quimby, could have been my separated twin sister. We seemed to get in similar scrapes, have crazy imaginations, be puzzled by the same things in this confusing adult-run world, and we both separated our gummy bears by color before eating them. What more proof do you need? I loved all of her adventures on Klickitat Street as she manuevered the world of growing up with charm and spunk. For instance, when she saw on a television sitcom a little girl asking a lady why she had 'elephant legs' when her pantyhose were bunched up around her ankles, Ramona couldn't understand why her own schoolteacher didn't think her charming and have canned audience laughter when she repeated the comment. Puzzling. Ramona grew up and went through elementary school with me, and I always felt a connection to her and the things she was encountering. We even shared a bad haircut! Who wouldn't want a friend who had a green haired doll named Chevrolet? She never failed to make me laugh.
One particular aspect that I loved about Ramona was that there were eight books in the series. I personally was always drawn to books in series because I would get so attached to the characters that it would always be a letdown when I finished a book. With eight stories, I felt like there was a Ramona world to which I could escape and live out her problems, whether it be her anguish about her librarian's poor spelling ability, weird family dynamics, or seeing that she noticed the little things about life that many people miss. As if multiple books in the series weren't enough, there was also a video series about Ramona that I used to check out of the library. I never liked these as much as the books- I felt that the actress they chose for Ramona matched what I had envisioned, but the sister, Beezus, never quite felt right.
To this day I'm convinced I still have certain 'Ramonaisms'. She will always hold a special place in my heart.
I remember the book when Ramona went to her first year of school. I remember how she nearly lost her treasured beautiful red boots in thick mud. I remember her experiments with pinking shears. But most of all I remember the day that Ramona walked to school on her own, and had been told to leave the house at a quarter past eight. Well, a quarter is 25 cents, so Ramona left for school at 8:25. I didn't understand why my mother found this to be funny. If they had wanted her to leave at 8:15, they should have told her to leave at a nickel and a dime.
ReplyDeleteIt made perfect sense to me.